1. Field of the Invention
An aspect of the present invention relates to an image reading and/or reproducing apparatus. More particularly, the present invention relates to an image reading and/or reproducing apparatus that provides enhanced image reading speed by improving a document feeding structure of the image reading and/or reproducing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 is a view of a schematic operation of a conventional image reading apparatus 1. According to the conventional image reading apparatus, when reading a single-sided image, a document 3 supplied from a document feeding tray 2 is picked up by a pick-up roller 5 to be fed to a document convey path 7. The document 3, fed by the pick-up roller 5, passes an Automatic Document Feeder (ADF) roller 9 to be separated into a single sheet. A friction pad 11 is formed adjacently to an opposed surface of the ADF roller 9 to provide a frictional force when the document 3 is separated. The document 3, separated into a single sheet by the ADF roller 9, is then transmitted via convey rollers 13, 15 to an image scan unit 17.
A single side of the document 3 transmitted to the image scan unit 17 is read, then the document is conveyed to a discharge roller 21, where the document is loaded in order on a document discharge tray 23 by the discharge roller 21.
When reading a double-sided image, one side of the document 3 is scanned according to the same operational principles as are described above. The trailing end of the document 3 is positioned upstream of the image scan unit as the conveying direction of the document is reversed along a document reverse path 25 prior to the document being scanned again and then discharged to the document discharge tray 23 via the discharge roller 21. A path conversion device 26 is formed around the document reverse path 25 to selectively open the document reverse path 25 and the document convey path 7. The document 3, moved to the document reverse path 25, passes a reverse roller 27 and then U-turns at a position of the convey roller 15 such that the surfaces of the document 3 are reversed with respect to the image scan unit. The image scan unit 17 then reads an image on the document 3 to complete the double-sided image reading process.
A problem exists, however, in that, when reading the double-sided image, the order of the documents 3 that are discharged onto the document discharge tray 23 is necessarily different from the order of the documents 3 as they were loaded on the document feeding tray 2. The cause of the difference will be described in detail as follows.
FIG. 2A is a view of a status of double-sided documents loaded on the document feeding tray 2 of a conventional image reading apparatus 1, and FIG. 2B is a view of an example of the double-sided documents discharged from the apparatus once the conventional image reading apparatus performs a reading of both sides of the double-sided image.
Referring to FIG. 2A, when, for example, double-sided documents with 6 pages, 3 sheets are loaded, the double-sided documents are loaded on the document discharge tray 23 in order of pages 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 (hereinafter, when the first image forming page is positioned at the uppermost side, this arrangement will be referred to as “face up”, whereas when the first image forming page is positioned at the lowermost side, this arrangement will be referred to as “face down”), a plurality of the loaded documents are sequentially separated from the uppermost surface of the stack to perform a reading of both sides of the double-sided image as described above.
As illustrated in FIG. 2B, the documents are output in order of pages 2, 1, 4, 3, 6, 5 from the lowermost side on the document discharge tray 23 such that the pages are not arranged in a correct order.
In order to solve the above problem, as the reading of the double-sided images of the document 3 is completed, the document 3 is reversely conveyed via the document reverse path 25 and U-turned via the convey roller 15 to be discharged. In other words, the document 3 travels through a portion 7a of the document convey path 7 that corresponds to a section B between a starting point S1 and an ending point E1 of the document reverse path 25 three times.
When reading the double-sided images according to a conventional art as described above, additional reverse operations are performed to arrange the order of the discharged document pages. Therefore, a long time is required to read images.